Nonfiction Matters   

Always Nice When Our Discussions are Echoed in the Press

We've been talking here about music in history and about historical interpretation. Well what should my morning Times bring me but an article about a NOVA show tonight that features Dr. Oliver Sacks and his case studies of music and the brain, tinyurl.com/m5ff9c and this Science Times piece about Dr. Steve Lekson tinyurl.com/lf252y
Dr. Lekson has a theory about why the predecessors of the Hopi and the Navaho moved from one site to another in the southwest. He believes the leaders of the communities were moving along a single north-south meridian. The focus of the article, though, is not about that theory, but rather his entire approach -- and that perfectly matches our discussions.

Dr. Lekson claims that: &ldq...Read More

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What Design Does in NonFiction

I am working with the editors of the Horn Book on a book about literature for young readers -- aimed at parents, teachers, librarians (the gatekeepers who select, buy, and worry about the books kids read). One of the editors asked me for suggestions for a nonfiction spread to use as an example, to illustrate good NF design. At first I thought of Nic Bishop, but we are already heavy on science images. And so I went to my shelves to look at my own haphazard library of NF to see what I really liked, and why. The more I looked, the more clear the answer became: excellence in NF design comes down to one word: perfection.

In fiction, a designer needs to pick a good typeface and book size. She needs to match the space between the lines and the size of the words to the expected readership. She needs to work with an artist to come up ...Read More

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Did You See the Articles about the 35,000 Year Old Flute Found in Germany?

Here it is -- and you can even hear music played on a wooden replica of the bone flute: tinyurl.com/l2hjkn Of course while we can reasonably estimate how a person blew into the bone, and we can see where the player put his or her fingers, we don't know what rhythms were used -- what clusters of tones humans were after so long ago. Everything about this find, though, is breathtaking -- the pure aesthetic beauty of the flute itself; how carefully it was made; that it is from so very long ago -- when Neanderthals were still alive; and that it survived.

My last blog was about how we ought to be able to create digital books to explain the now to our readers. I also think we ought to be able to create sound environments, so students can hear the...Read More

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All Day While Working On My Own Projects, I Keep Checking for News from Iran, Don't You?

We have had the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic, the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, and while this is in some ways the Green protest (the leaders are careful to say it is not a revolution) in so many other ways it is obviously the 2.0 Turnaround. We've all seen how twitter, Facebook, and Google have played a part in opening small cracks in the government wall of censorship, and allowing the opposition in Iran to be in contact. Clearly both the struggle going on there, and the means used, are ideal subjects to share with American teenagers. When Obama quoted Dr. King he was making the analogy every teacher can use -- either way, to allow our kids to identify, and to show how the Civil Rights model is still making change today. 

But what can we do? Any bo...Read More

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Did You Catch the Essay on How Teenagers No Longer Like Holden?

If not, here it is: tinyurl.com/lc9286 Stranglely enough, in looking for that article online, I found this essay by the Washington Post book reviewer Jonathan Yardly that disliked the book on adult re-reading, and for somewhat similar reasons as those expressed by the teenagers in the Times essay: tinyurl.com/npxonr. Books age, or change, as we age. There is no particular reason why Catcher should shine just as brightly to every new generation. But the Times essay went beyong an analysis of Catcher (Yardly's focus) to posing questions about teenagers themselves -- and that is where this issue gets interesting.

The Times essay suggests that teenagers today not be as drawn to Holden and his angst, his search for ...Read More

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If You Make the Analogy to English, This Gets Easier

In schools throughout this country, kids read novels and then discuss them. The teacher, who has, one assumes, taken literature in college, is thus able to guide a discussion of plot, character, point of view, setting, detail, themes -- all of those standbyes. When she asks for comments, she is able to guide a student to help the child discriminate between feeling -- I liked it, I was bored -- insight -- the character is not telling the truth, the character is fooling himself -- and observation -- how come the boys are always the heroes? No one expects that every reaction a child has is "right" -- but the teacher also has some flexibility to entertain new ideas and insights she had not previously considered. An immigrant whose family lived on a small farm in the Dominican Republic, for example, might read Cha...Read More

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What Are We Doing Calling Our Writing Nonfiction If We Know It is Not the Full Truth?

I've been thinking about that issue of interpretation and truth, and then a couple of new adult books helped me to clarify what I am trying to say. Wendy Doniger is an extremely accomplished scholar of both the language of Sanskrit and religion in India. Her new book is called The Hindus: An Alternative History tinyurl.com/ddyn9v and early on she explains her aims: "there is another story to be told here: how we know what we know, what we used to believe, why we believe what we believe now....Many crucial questions remain unanswered, and I hope that this book will inspire some readers to go back to the sources and decide for themselves whether or not they agree with me." I have written very similar notes in books for young re...Read More

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ALA:

Here is the information about the nonfiction bookblast and the wiki:
 

Sunday, July 12, 2009, 10:30 a.m.-noon

ALA Annual Conference, Chicago

Wiki at http://nfbookblast.pbworks.com/

Here is a question -- problem -- concern about graphic novel biographies from Marc Tyler Nobleman that some of you may want t

...Read More

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The Opportunities In a Panic

A few posts ago I mentioned my wife's visit to the Mercantile Library -- the new Center for Fiction -- and the touch of optimism it brought to both of us. To frame what I am about to say, let me tell you about tomorrow. I am going to yet another memorial, this time  for Eden Ross Lipson -- who was editor of the New York Times children's books section during most of the time I have worked making books for young readers. Yet another loss. And I know that among the friends I will see there will again be those who have lost their jobs as book publishing loses money and cannot seem to find a way towards a better future. And yet Marina will be at a day long event where local authors in our town talk about books, meet kids, meet parents, meet teachers. tinyurl.com/mk75ft. Now local author events are nothi...Read More

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Can It Really Be True That Some Elementary School Teachers Have Trouble With Historical Interpretation?

Betsy Partridge wrote in yesterday, incredulous at that statement. And when I started this blog and made similar statements, Monica -- speaking for other teachers -- also disagreed. But I have to tell you that since I made that speculative argument I have been speaking at Teaching American History grants all over the country. These are professional development opportunities for teachers, who run the gamut from upper elementary to AP. These are motivated, self-selected teachers who want to know more about American History and how to teach it. And just today I heard from another grad school where I will be teaching reading and language arts teachers -- my host (not knowing about the post I'd made yesterday) began by warning me that overall the teachers dislike...Read More

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I Put the Title in Quotations Because It Comes From a New Book by Dr. Richard Nisbett

Here's the book, tinyurl.com/c5uudk and here's the Nicholas Kristoff essay in yesterday's Times that brought it to my attention, tinyurl.com/nj32fu. Dr. Nisbett argues that intelligence is not primarily a result of gene pools -- which, as you remember The Bell Curve, is a position that still has many fans. Kristoff focuses on three groups that have done exceptionally well in America: Asian-Americaans; Jews; West Indians. Following Nisbett, he argues that their success has been due to cultural ephasis on education, education, education -- along with a high value on hard work, and intact families. 

Why does this matter to us? Well clearly we are interested in education, and we've seen ...Read More

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Some Thoughts from Peter Ginna, publisher and editorial director of Bloomsbury Press

Last night my wife went to a party celebrating Elizabeth Strout, who won the Pulitzer Prize this year for her collection Olive Kitteridge tinyurl.com/ks9pcu The event was held at The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction tinyurl.com/n5u7ut -- a place you should know about. A private library in New York founded in 1820, the Merc has mutated in a center for fiction -- reading it, writing it, discussing it, celebrating, as well as housing novels and short stories on its shelves. The chair of the Center is Peter Ginna of Bloomsbury (the company as a whole, adult and kids), and Marina came back with a handout that included his take on books and their future. I thought his ideas were interesting and ...Read More

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